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Crimes and Consequences Podcast
EP304: The Last Christmas at the Lawson Farm

EP304: The Last Christmas at the Lawson Farm

Crimes and Consequences vor 4 Wochen

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43:45

On a cold December morning in 1929, the Lawson family gathered on
their farm outside Germanton, North Carolina, surrounded by the
familiar rhythms of rural life. Christmas had arrived with the
promise of family, faith, and a brief respite from the hardships of
farm work. Only weeks earlier, Charlie Lawson had done something
few families in the area could afford—he purchased new clothes,
bought Christmas gifts, and arranged for a professional family
portrait. It was a picture that captured an ordinary American
family at what appeared to be the happiest moment of their lives.
Within hours on Christmas Day, however, that photograph would
become one of the most haunting images in American history, and the
quiet Lawson farm would become the center of a mystery that has
endured for nearly a century.

*correction: James is identified as being 16 years old, when he was
really only 4. Apologies for the error.

SOURCES:
1) Website of author, Trudy J. Smith
2) "The Meaning of Our Tears" by Trudy J. Smith
3) "White Christmas, Bloody Christmas" by Trudy J. Smith and M.
Bruce Jones